eQUEST: .FMT to .BIN weather conversion

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Happy holidays to everyone on the board!

I'm in the process of converting actual weather data for an M&V model
calibration...In order to get the doe2 weather utility TXT2BIN to work,
I know you first create the custom .FMT file from a .CSV file...when I
look at a standard .FMT file created from a standard .BIN file, lines
4-8764 are pretty self-explanatory as those are the 17 columns of data
that a .BIN file requires for each hour of the year...my question is,
what are the numbers found in lines 1-3 of the .FMT file?? Here's an
example for the Chicago, IL .BIN converted to .FMT...

Lines 1-3 of .FMT:

Chicago IL TMY2 1968 41.78 87.75 6 5

1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

500.0 496.2 495.9 497.7 505.1 512.4 518.8 522.8 523.2 519.9 513.7 506.6

Line 1 numbers 41.78 and 87.75 are lat/lon, but what is the significance
of 6 & 5?

Line 2 doesn't matter as it's all 1.00 values.

Line 3...I got nothing...anyone?

I ask only because I'm curious if these numbers mean anything and if I
can just copy these 3 default lines for the Chicago weather file into my
custom .FMT file?

Any insight would be great...thanks!

Josh Greenfield, PE , REP
, LEED AP 


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TRY/TMY Weather Data Format

Column Data: DB = Dry Bulb WB = Wet Bulb DP = Dew Point WD = Wind Direction WS = Wind Speed
AP = Atmos Pr W = Weather CC = Cloud Cover

WBAN DB WB DP WD WS AP W CC Cloud Details RDN BLANK YR M D H
1-5 6-8 9-11 2-14 15-17 18-20 21-24 25 26-27 28-55 56-59 60-69 70-73 74-75 76-77 78-79

?Tokyo.dat? file: Latitude = 35.4 Longitude = -139.5 Time Zone = -9
47662 048 041 033 350 010 9999 1 01 999999999999999999999999 9999 1991 01 01 21
47662 080 070 065 020 008 9999 0 04 999999999999999999999999 9999 1991 07 02 15

?Kuwait.dat? file: Latitude = 29.2 Longitude = -48.0 Time Zone = -3
40582 053 045 036 000 000 9999 0 04 999999999999999999999999 9999 1989 01 01 21
40582 115 066 025 330 014 9999 0 00 999999999999999999999999 9999 1990 07 07 15

First Line of Data (Jan 1, Hr 1) must have weather data up to Cloud Cover.
DOE Weather Processor interpolates missing values. Card (CD) Column Numbers:

Card Column Nos.
CD-1 1-4 PACK
CD-2 1-20 ?location Name. Ex: Chicago?
CD-3 1-6 Any one of types TRY, TMY, TMY2, WYEC, CTZ, etc
7-12 WBAN Station Number for TRY and TMY
13-18 Weather Data Year (Enter -999 if unknown)
19-24 Time Zone (Ex. USA Central Time is 6, Tokyo is -9)
25-30 Latitude (Enter as Decimal Number within column range)
31-36 Longitude (Enter as Decimal Number within column range)
37-42 60-BIT (or 30-BIT)
43-48 NORMAL (for DOE2, OLD for DOE1, SOLAR for extra solar Info)
49-54 Program will incorporate missing data for up to 4 hours)
55-60 Maximum DB increase per hour.
61-66 Soil Diffusivity (Can be omitted)
CD-4 1-6 to 67-72 Clearness Number for each of 12 months (-999 in 1-6 to omit)
CD-5 1-6 to 67-72 Ground Temps (deg-K) for each of 12 months (-999 in 1-6 to omit)
CD-6 1-4 LIST (to list weather data ? omit ? not required)
CD-7 1-4 STAT (to get statistical data ? can be omitted)
CD-8 1-3 END (end of instructions for processing 8760 hour weather data)

?Tokyo.inp? file: (take an existing column formatted .inp file and change the values)
PACK
TOKYO 2000
TRY 47662 -999 -9 35.4 -139.530-BITNORMAL 4 20. .025
0.95 0.97 0.98 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.05 1.00 0.98 0.98 0.98
-999.
STAT
END

?Kuwait.inp? file: (take an existing column formatted .inp file and change the values)
PACK
KUWAIT 2000
TRY 40582 -999 -3 29.2 -48.1 30-BITNORMAL 4 20. .025
0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98 0.98
-999.
STAT
END

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